


Expectation

by VasaliaTheWise



Category: The Great (TV 2020)
Genre: 18th Century, Arranged Marriage, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends With Benefits, Friends With Benefits To Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Love Confessions, Marriage, Pregnancy, happy marriage, i guess, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:42:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26922325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VasaliaTheWise/pseuds/VasaliaTheWise
Summary: Your arranged marriage with a Russian count has turned out...surprisingly nice. You realize that you...might have feelings for the husband you were bound to. And if that's not complicated enough, you realize you're about to have his child.
Relationships: Grigor Dymov/Reader
Kudos: 12





	Expectation

**Author's Note:**

> (This is not a part of the Promised universe but was asked for. Enjoy!)

“Y/N, come back to bed, darling,” your husband mewled out to you.  
You had sat up and placed your feet on the floor. Turning to look at him behind you, he was laying himself on his side smiling up at you. He was a beautiful man and sometimes looked like a Greek god in the morning sunlight, you admitted to yourself. It made you forget the sour churning in your stomach you have had for a few days. The churning that concerned you.   
Feeling the bed shift with his weight. You smiled under the feeling of him moving aside the collar of your nightdress to kiss your shoulder.  
“It’s already daytime…” you answered, “the birds have been chirping forever,” you said.  
“Let them chirp all they want. They aren’t in here with a pretty lady in their beds.”  
Obliging, you gently leaned back and let him cuddle you for just a bit more. Crawling partly on top of him, you let your head lay against his heart. It was beating slowly. His skin felt hot against your cheek and the nightgown you were wearing contrasted with his skin.  
“I was remembering…the day you arrived here. When we married…” Grigor recalled, his eyes looking up at the red bedpost.  
Part of you let out a little laugh of embarrassment.  
“Oh god…” you blurted. “Which one? When I tripped when I got out the first carriage?”  
“No, no…I remember how…how scared you seemed…” he recalled, his voice low, scratchy, and sleepy.  
“I was scared. Remember-I forgot my own wedding vows, Grigor! Archie had to prompt them to me twice!”  
“But…I was just as scared too.” he continued.  
The chirping of the birds outside continued.  
“I…I just didn’t know who you were. How wonderful you were,” he complimented. Your cheeks grew red. You looked up and he looked down to see you. You did recall that wedding. Your legs were shaking beneath your gown as you walked down to the dark chapel. When the wedding night arrived you nearly cried as you were changed out of your gown into your nightdress and heard his knock. As everyone else excused themselves to give the betrothed couple privacy, you thought your heart would knock itself out of your ribs. Could you just lie down, lift your skirt, open your legs, and pray for it to be over soon?  
To your shock, Grigor asked for nothing of you. You wound up drinking a little vodka and talking. He offered to sleep on the chair or in the other room until you were comfortable with him. He spent his wedding night curled up on a chair in front of the fire.  
This soon became longer hours of talking and learning more about each other. He had become your friend. Then he only held your hand and began kissing you when you let him. As you talked with your new husband more and more, you began to know him, dance with him, and let him kiss you more often, then to sleep beside you in his bed, and then to make love to you to consummate the marriage.  
And you found you enjoyed it. A lot. And a chance hardly passed for both of you to jump into each other’s arms and be at it like rabbits.  
The birds were quieter. You pulled yourself up to look at his face.  
“I…I don’t regret marrying you…” you confessed. “In fact, I think I…I….”  
There was another word right on your lips, but you could hardly think. A pressing matter was to your mind. Several pressing matters. You wanted to say it. And you wanted him to say it too so badly. Someone had to say it. It was right on the tip of your tongue when a serf burst in bringing breakfast on a tray.  
“I don’t regret it at all…” Grigor said, pressing a kiss to your forehead appropriate enough as they opened some curtains for sunlight placed silverware on the tray.  
Crawling out of bed together, your nose crinkled at the smell of toasted bread, but the smell of the eggs was almost overwhelming. You went to the desk to check your journal to check for today’s date. Some of the ladies were amazed and poked fun at you for being literate. You didn’t care too much. You liked to sometimes track and write things in quieter moments.  
August the twenty-second was today’s date.  
Glancing back, Grigor was occupied more with rolling up his stockings before having poached eggs, bread, and chopped melons for breakfast.  
“Would you like anything?” he asked.  
“I’ll be there in a moment,” you answered, confident he was far enough from you to peek. You pulled back a few pages to see your own notes.  
June 15th: began bleeding today…  
The smell of the new pages began to drift in your nose, replacing the strong egg smell as you checked each day of the next month where you wrote. There was no day to mark when you bled in July.  
It had been two months.   
You were supposed to bleed on August the 15th. And there was nothing.   
Sitting down, you ate a bit of bread and a few bites of melon. You had to hurry. A matter like this couldn’t wait.  
“I…I have to meet Lady Svenska for tea, I will see you later, my dear,” you excused.  
The words slipped out so causally, if not fast. Grigor blinked and then smiled.   
“Oh. Goodbye Y/N.”  
He took your hand and kissed it in farewell before you dressed and scurried out. Walking down the wooden halls, you kept your eyes fixed to the end of it until a butterfly at the end of it got your attention.  
There was a tall, auburn colored wig and a few more butterflies accompanying the first one.  
“Oh, Madame Dymov!” she greeted.  
“Oh-er-Elizabeth! What are you doing?” you asked.  
“On my way to see the Empress!” she chirruped dreamily with a proud smile.   
You noticed a bundle of wheat in her arms.  
“With wheat? Are you going to make bread?” you teased lightly.  
“Oh no- it’s annual! She must urinate on the wheat and if it blooms she’s expecting an heir!” she explained.  
Your stomach dropped at the words. You were going to be sick, you really felt it. You eyed the bundles, tempting as they looked. Maybe you could ask for one. But…you couldn’t. Especially out in public where anyone could see, and a rumor could spread easily. Who knew how Grigor would react? And, you had to visit someone who could without fail to tell you yes or no.  
“Why, what is it, Y/N? You look flushed!” she wondered.  
“Nothing, I uh- I was only thinking that-uh- the wheat it reminded…r-r-reminded me of my duty towards my husband. You know.” You improvised, folding your hands in front of you meekly.  
“Well, if you have any problem performing, just lie back and think of Russia. Find some erotica. It’s the best for stimulation. I have plenty of art in my chambers that may inspire you to try doing a position like a table while he…”  
“Have to be somewhere, have to hurry! Goodbye Lady Elizabeth!” you interrupt, walking away to the green corridor.   
Heart beating harder than ever, you reached the door to the physician’s office and knocked.

The words were still ringing in your ears along with the mixing of your stomach as you walked out. Everything went dizzy as you stood there, still processing the words from the court physician.  
“Congratulations, Madame Dymov!”  
First things first. There was one person who needed to know. Soon.  
Hurrying back to the apartment, you rang for a servant. You asked where your husband was and as soon as he was free to come back.  
Minutes ticked by slow as honey. You paced before the fire, turning by the large golden bathtub, and staring outside at the gardens. You looked down at your stomach in your dress. It seemed perfectly normal. No sign of anything. But that meant that everything was normal. Half an hour stretched by agony came and went.   
Finally, the door opened and Grigor walked through. His eyes were bright from movement. He wore a looser white shirt-probably playing tennis against the wall with the emperor again.  
“Hello there, Y/N…you’ve summoned me? Is something wrong?” he asked worriedly.  
You paused, frozen. The words half in your mouth. Staying there, almost choking to get out.  
“Grigor I…I…”  
Your throat knotted up. He walked closer.  
“You’re…you’re not sick with the pox or anything, are you? I don’t see any marks…”  
“Grigor I’m pregnant,” you announced flatly.  
He turned white and then pink.   
“Y/N…is this…is this a prank?” he questioned, head shaking but his voice getting higher in pitch.  
“I’ve not bled for two months. It’s no prank, I just got back from the court doctor. You can talk to him,” you confirmed, bobbing your head.  
His jaw dropped low and he took your hands.  
“We’re going to be parents…” you told him in disbelief.   
“Y/N…”  
He took your face in his hands. And then he began to kiss you passionately and you kissed back, your hands wandering to his back. Looking up, you saw a few tears in his eyes and his smile had a slight crinkle to his face. Once he let go, you began smiling back.  
“I could pick you up…would that be…” he wondered.  
“As long as you’re gentle. It won’t hurt the little one, yes.”  
He picked you up and turned you around in an embrace. Tears began to well up and fall once you landed and you started to sniffle, holding onto each other. He placed a careful hand on your stomach. It was quiet for a moment.  
He looked up, grinning ear to ear.  
“Y/N…I’ve known this for a bit but…as mad as it is, even though we’ve been married for a long time, but I… I…I think I love you…”  
There it was. The words you wanted so badly this morning. The words you wanted for a while. The words that would make having this child easier. You kissed him again.  
“I…I think love you too.”


End file.
